And there are a lot of very interesting questions that come up with the new turn of events with the suggestion, apparently casual and accidental, by John Kerry that if Syria puts its chemical weapons under the international control, then there will be no attack. And the immediate response by Russia, saying – well, okay, we’ll ask Syria about this. And Syria responding very-very quickly saying – yes, we agree.
So, was this all accidental or is this the result of behind the door negotiations between the Syrians, Russians and the US fundamentally preventing not just a strike on Syria (that’s what the media is talking about), but Russia knows full well and a lot of people in America know full well that such a strike could very well lead to a very major regional war, which could end in a confrontation between Russia and the US – a very-very ugly and catastrophic situation. And that’s what, at least, Russia has been trying to prevent in my view.
So, what this does is fundamentally gets Barack Obama off the hook, because he has backed himself into a corner. And he was never kind of in the forefront of people pushing for action on Syria in the sense of a military action. But he has allowed himself to be painted into a corner.
So, the sequence of events in the last few days enables him to get out of the corner. There is no congressional vote and now we have this situation where if chemical weapons are put under the international control there will be no need for a strike right now. It might happen in the future, but not right now. So, it enables him to get off the hook. And I think maybe that’s what Russia has been trying to do – to give him a face-saving way out.
…
So, the big question is – if Syria puts its stocks of chemical weapons under the international control, who is going to put the stocks of this material held by the armed groups under control? I mean they will still have it.

International experts have provided convincing evidence, proving that purported photo and video evidence of the alleged chemical weapons attack on 21 September in the Damascus countryside has been fabricated. The international experts have presented the evidence on the falsification of photo and video “evidence” during the 24th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.

Russia says the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) has confirmed that the videos and photos purporting to show the victims of a chemical attack near the Syrian capital, Damascus, were fabricated.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a Tuesday statement that international experts as well as Syrian public and religious leaders presented their evidence to the 24th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on September 9.

A report says the foreign-backed militants operating inside Syria have been making chemical weapons in the suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus.
The weapons, which are made by an individual named Hani Nour Eldin Aqeel in a workshop in the city of Yabroud, are smuggled to the city of Douma in domestic gas capsules by women who have come to be referred to as Harayer al-Soura, the Arabic-language news website Asianewslb reported on Sunday.
Meanwhile, local reports also said that the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front has been running bomb-making workshops in Yabroud and transfer the explosives to the different areas of Syria, including the capital, as well as neighboring Lebanon.

A priori belief in official truths is now mandatory, even if it makes zero political or strategic sense for the Syrian government to have used chemical weapons, in a war it has turned around, and right when UN inspectors are in Damascus itself. Assad has “slaughtered over 100,000 people” – never mind that almost half of that estimate consists of Syrian troops and pro-government civilians. Assad is “killing his own people” – but one can never say, “the rebels are killing their own people.” Maybe it’s best not to, for “own people” means absolutely nothing outside of ethnocentric politics, and besides: many of the rebels are not even Syrian.
By the dominant logic, since Abraham Lincoln also killed vast numbers of his own people, he should have been overthrown by an international coalition of enemy states. But only Americans can have a civil war, or history: others are meant only to follow our dictates. That the “Assad regime” might be protecting its loyal civilians from murder by foreign jihadists, never registers as “protection” for the R2P crowd. Protection is apparently a racket that is the monopoly of Western states now.

I wanted to ask you about the comments of Alon Pinkas. He’s the former Israeli consul general in New York. And speaking to The New York Times last week, Pinkas described his take on how Israel is viewing the conflict in Syria. He said, quote, ”This is a playoff situation in which you need both teams to lose, but at least you don’t want one to win—we’ll settle for a tie. Let them both bleed, hemorrhage to death: that’s the [strategic] thinking here.
As long as this lingers, there’s no real threat from Syria.”

The United Nations Secretary General, China, Britain, France and the Arab League welcomed the Russian initiative. Syria accepted it. Predictably the Syrian insurgents are against the Russian proposal as are the Israelis. They will not matter. The Obama campaign momentum towards war is now broken and can not be repaired. Going to war now would require a complete new propaganda campaign build on a different pseudo-rational cause.

Footage and photos of the alleged chemical attack in Syria, which the US cites as the reason for a planned military intervention, had been fabricated in advance, speakers told a UN human rights conference in Geneva.
Members of the conference were presented accounts of international experts, Syrian public figures and Russian news reporters covering the Syrian conflict, which back Russia’s opposition to the US plans, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

President Al-Assad’s interview with Charlie Rose of American CBS – Part 1 – 8 September 2013